In order to best tell the coming story, the Edge / IP program has decided to embrace novelty with one additional feature: we have launched a new blog via Blogger! Our profile boasts topic- and student-related labels on every post, a subscribe-by-email option, Twitter and Pinterest widgets, miscellaneous information about the program, and ALL posts published over the previous two years (sorted by month). Ultimately, it has never been easier for faculty, parents, students, and interested individuals to stay up-to-date on all Edge / IP matters.
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Best wishes,
The Edge Team
(1) A remix of David Bowie's "Changes." 
(3) An updated black and white cartoon.
Once he had made his decision, Trey set off on a sustained process of
sound engineering. He was kind enough, too, to invite the IP faculty to
his workspace so that we could begin to comprehend his process.
Separated in a small room, Trey manipulated ProTools on a desktop
computer with his laptop, a microphone, and various instruments
positioned nearby. Viewing multiple lines of sound at once, Trey would
highlight particular sections of the original clip and then begin to
fashion his own in a parallel sequence. He consulted banks of sound via
public domain for more obscure noises, but he also did not hesitate to
create his own when these searches proved fruitless. Indeed, Trey was a
veteran in this process after creating an original composition entitled
"Sound Art" last year; therefore, he set about crafting his own sounds
with gusto.
After months of work - on the very last day of school, no less - Trey
approached the IP community ready to present his piece. He gathered the
students and his family in "The Makers' Space" and launched into a
guided viewing.
After attending One Spark and co-writing a 
On
his own initiative, Jonathan also spent significant portions of time
cataloguing and organizing his photographs. He demonstrated his
interest in that process throughout the year, tirelessly combing through
- and editing, where appropriate - shots that he had taken the previous
day or week. Now, however, he found additional reasons to conduct such
work. First, he organized photographs for a one-man exhibit in "The
Makers' Space" during Founders' Day. Although he was unable to attend
the event, students, family, friends, and faculty responded to his work
positively. In addition, he selected and sequenced photos to create an
online portfolio via 
(1) 
(2) 
(3) 
(4) 
Piterson
made tremendous strides with his newfound discipline. At one point
during the spring, he approached the IP team because he was having
difficulties with the smoothness of a portion of the pelvis (although he
did not know the name of the bone, he was referring to the lilac fossa).
We suggested posterboard material, but Piterson configured an
inventive (and more aesthetic) workaround using a variety of
materials. He bent supple twigs gradually in order to form a curved
frame; using this piece as an outline, he then mapped and cut plywood to
form the lilac fossa. He glued this to the outline and repeated the process for the second half of the pelvis.
Throughout
his process, Piterson launched intensive research with a heightened
sense of precision. He evinced exemplary visual acuity and engineering
by translating a 2D image into a 3D piece. Perhaps he best applied
these skills while wrestling with the textures of the spine. Using
various computer programs to project and rotate images on a large
flatscreen TV, he noticed that the posterior view revealed two different shapes. Although he did not know the
names "cervical vertebrae" and "thoracic vertebrae," he concluded that
the top bones (the former) were flatter and more rectangular while the
bottom bones (the latter) were shaped almost like "W's" or teeth. The
top bones, too, appeared darker for their close approximity to one another.
Piterson therefore went about creating these two bones, using a dull
cardboard for the top bones and a lighter plywood for the bottom. He
produced and connected his spine to the pelvis, creating a piece that
startled the IP team for its beauty.
Piterson strove to complete the skeleton before he left. The year
ran out before he could target the skull, however, so he was only able
to complete half of the skeleton. True, he did not finish the project
that he set for himself. However, that fact does not, of course, invalidate the
project that he did create or the process in which he engaged. As the
IP faculty and students cleaned up "The Makers' Space" at year-end, we happened to put together the parts of Piterson's skeleton
in order to approximate its shape. The finished piece was even more
awe-inspiring than we had anticipated. In that moment, as this humanoid
figure taller than 6 feet was erected before us, faculty and students
alike grasped Piterson's true progress. These products transcended the
definition of the "models" as which they were originally conceived; they now
constituted true works of art. No less importantly, although Piterson did
not know the names of every bone he handled, he nevertheless came to
understand them - their shape, their relationship to the bones around
them - for having fashioned them himself.
Paige
demonstrated stellar tutoring instincts as she finished her phonics
notebook. She distilled her research into Orton-Gillingham by compiling appropriate reading lists, and she looked to her own experience
as a student to devise learning activities that visually exceeded the
traditional emphasis on multi-sensory processing. No less importantly, she did not lose sight of her intended audience: an elementary school student. Early on she realized
that she had to incorporate fun into her lessons: "I started to think
of the best way to make a student understand what I wanted to teach
them. I wanted to make it fun because trying to teach a student - just
sitting there, going over the rule - wouldn’t have been fun." She set
off to bend her lessons towards a mock student's interests in order to build
rapport and help solidify the lesson's content.
My
first game [focused on] the rule of short and long vowels. At first I
had no idea on what I was going to do. Then I thought I could make
"Chutes and Ladders." After putting all the words [in], Mr. Bisson and I
decided to play, but he wasn’t being himself. He was acting like a
elementary tutoring student. He was all over the place. He was really
excited and he wanted to get up and act some of the words out. This
really showed me what my students might be like in class. 
The next game I made focused on soft-
Leading up to graduation, many members of the Class of 2015
complained of senioritis. Not Brad. After rebounding from a period of
procrastination in the late winter, he developed an inspiring work
ethic. He pushed towards year's end at full throttle, and at graduation
he showed no sign of letting up.
"A
few weekends ago I went fishing with my friend August as part of my IP
project. We went fishing based on the moon and tide. Because I wrote a
research paper on it, I used my paper as a guide on what days and times
to fish. 
"On
Wednesday morning we got out at 5 and were out of the house by 6:15 in
order to try and get in on the morning bite. We fished for an hour and a
half. It was dead. There was nothing. That is when we saw people move
to the other end of the beach. We went to check it out, and the fish
were everywhere. On my first cast into the school, I caught a 12-pound
blue fish. Shortly after I got him, August hooked his first blue fish
from the surf. 
Max D. is no stranger to performances. An avid member of the 
Max
quickly went to work once he secured the necessary permissions. He
began to search through his inventory of tricks in earnest, designing
last minute materials and giving the IP faculty more frequent mock
performances. Eventually he settled on three tricks; once he had this
routine he selected a minimalistic costume and practiced his
transitions. The most tantalizing factor for the IP team was that Max
did this work on his own. He did not consult his advisors for
assistance; he knew what he needed to get done, and he approached this
work conscientiously and deliberately.
Overall,
Max's performance was a big success. Over the course of the year, he
has made huge gains in the deft handling of his tricks. No less
importantly, he has become more comfortable engaging others. He has
shifted his focus to "close-ups" (which call upon audience
participation), and he has developed a performance personality that is
quite magnetic. He should feel proud of his good work, and the IP
faculty invites you to celebrate with us by posting in the comments section below.
After encountering significant technical difficulty with his laptop and 
After having worked with GameSalad
Enthralled
by the process of learning, Bull eventually distilled his thoughts into
a central question: "What is IP?" True to character, he found this
inquiry too delicious to resist. To begin to answer it, he met with the
IP faculty and discussed a 
David Flink
IP has seen no shortage of students attending conferences. Indeed, inspired by 
One
Spark is an event for artists, entrepreneurs and innovators in art,
education, health & science, social good, music, and technology to
get their ideas and projects funded by everyday people. It gave me a
chance to learn about the projects in each of the categories and what
good that each creator had to offer and the difference they are trying
to make in the world. I went down to One Spark to photograph the event
directly and to get experience in photographing an event. For the time
that I was working, I was learning a lot about what the vendors had to
go through while working at the event. I also learned that working at an
event like this can be a lot of fun and a lot of photography
experience.
I
didn’t have a specific assignment; I took pictures of vendors, people,
and the Food Village on certain streets. The event was spread out over a
lot of streets, and I had to do Food Village (a center with restaurants
and food trucks). I gave many of my photos to One Spark, which is going
to use them for future advertising. I hope that mine are going to be
used in the social media and promotional advertising. I was taking
pictures for One Spark (with them in mind) and for the fun of it. This
isn’t a different venue than others I’ve done before, but there were a
lot more people there. 
After
focusing exclusively on aquarium management for a time, Piterson
realized that he had inadvertently abandoned his wooden skeleton. He
spoke with the IP faculty, who in turn suggested that he bring his work
into "The Makers' Space": the upstairs, art-meets-IP studio in the IP
building. If Piterson positioned himself in a workspace, we explained,
perhaps he might see new routes for his project.
On
Friday, April 17th, the IP community celebrated an unprecedented
event. Four students - Tim, Trey, Khaled, and Bull - organized a
presentation for Kildonan's 
Thank
you, fellow IPians, for supporting these four students as they designed
and executed this presentation. Thank you, Tim, Trey, Khaled, and
Bull, for representing your community members and for facilitating a
thought-provoking, professional discussion. Thank you, Mr. Pendergast,
for scheduling IP into the Board's agenda. Last but not least, thank
you, Trustees, for proving a receptive audience and for supporting the
program as it looks to the future.
On Friday, April 10th, the IP community shifted part of its focus to
the future. Early in the afternoon, current IPians organized a luncheon
for prospective students. Over pizza and soda, they considered expert
questions concerning a number of issues (e.g., the program's structure
and requirements, collaboration between IPians, "product"- vs.
"process"-based learning). Current IP students also shared stories of
their own experiences within IP, explaining the tribulations early on as
well as the conventions, internships, concerts, and other opportunities
that they celebrate in the present. The meal disbanded with a sense of
hope, with the promise that other students might soon enter the fold of
the IP community.
No
matter the changes the program undergoes - including projected
increases in its enrollment - we look forward to the challenges and joys
of meeting the needs of another IP community in the future.
Since
this initial hypnosis, Misha infused 56 Leonard into his work, even
crafting a paper model of the building in his art class. Recently, too, a break arrived. Returning from Killington, Misha was
traveling with a
Kildonan parent who happens to be wedded to one of the building's
developers. Misha detailed his interest in the building, and not soon
after, an agreement was met: he would tour the building with the
developer.
Misha's
experience does not quite end there either. After submitting a resume
to the developer in search of an internship, Misha has secured an
internship with